My studio is a nice big room, maybe a little too long for its width, like a train car, but I've squared it by filling one end it with junk. When I'm done illustrating I can push away from my desk and walk ten feet to my left and I'm in the painting studio.
The room in my head can be harder to organize; the artifacts from assignment work can occupy a lot of cubic space and can make it difficult to find a clear spot for my own stuff. Sometimes the personal work creeps into the assignment work and I'm always surprised that that's often a good thing. I'm not sure I could do one without the other.
The illustration work is done with traditional materials, water-based paint and ink, that are scanned in and assembled in Photoshop. I used to work in oils until once the protective tissue stuck to the final art I had fedexed and the art director published the image with paper intact (my work looked different back then so it wasn't as odd a mistake as it sounds, it actually helped the piece. And the AD was David Carson). But the dry time with the oils was too difficult, when I switched media my work changed too and became more graphic.
The paintings are created using different transfer and printmaking techniques. I like to work large, perhaps because of the size restrictions of illustration. And it's nice to stand and wave my arms around. Text is often the armature that I use to start a painting, among the works I've returned to are; Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch and his short stories, Goethe's Faust, Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Annie Dillard's For the Time Being.
I live in Denver where it's bright (too bright) and dry. I share a 100 year old house with my partner of 20 years, Hugh Graham, and my dog of 3, Maddie. Someday I hope to live where it's not so contrasty.
Link to exhibition resume: to come
Link to proper bio in third person: to come
Contact me by email: hadleyhooper@earthlink.net
Links:
River North Art District, RiNo
Various and Sundry items:
April 2009Best of Westword Award for buckfifty.org, "Best 150th Birthday Present to Denver"
Recognized as one of Denver's 150; In celebration of its 150th birthday on Nov. 22, 2008, the city and county of Denver has selected 150 of its citizens to honor as "unsung heroes" -- ordinary people who have done extraordinary things to help make our city a better one for this and future generations.
2008 Westword Mastermind, awarded to Tracy Weil and Hadley Hooper for their efforts establishing the River North Art District, RiNo.
Silver Medal awarded from the Society of Illustrators, New York, 2007
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